MAN U’s SHIRT of SHAME
That’s the huge price football’s richest club i s charging fans for this season’s top – i ts most expensive ever
IT IS the world’s richest football club, whose star player is said to earn an eye- watering £ 450,000 a week.
So when Manchester United’s loyal supporters – not to mention parents – were asked to pay a record £ 110 for the club’s new shirt last month, the backlash was unsurprising.
Now The Mail on Sunday can reveal that the shirts are made in Cambodian factories by women paid just £31 a week, or 64p an hour. The figure is significantly below the country’s living wage called for by local campaigners.
The women claim they often endure harsh working conditions and in many cases can afford only slum housing. One worker said her family of four occupied a cramped room – costing £46 a month – in a house shared with three other families. Some complained of being berated by supervisors if they fail to produce at least 60 shirts an hour, occasionally as many as 100.
And one woman claimed her eyesight was failing because she spends ten hours a day sewing the shirts’ hems.
The women’s lives are in marked contrast to the gilded existence of United’s players, among them Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez, reportedly on £450,000 a week – a sum t hat would t ake a Cambodian worker three lifetimes to earn.
Adidas pay Manchester United – owned by American billionaires the Glazer family – a world-record £75 million a season to be allowed to make the club’s kit. Sales are expected to net the sportswear giant £1.5 billion over ten years.
World Cup stars Paul Pogba of France and England’s Jesse Lingard were among the players who launched the club’s latest strip ahead of the new season, which for United starts on Friday. When told the shirts sell for £110, workers in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh reacted with disgust and accused the club of profiting from their ‘blood and sweat’.
The local currency is the riel, but the workers are paid in US dollars. For a six-day week, they receive about $172 (£132) basic pay a month, which is just above the official min- imum wage. On top of this they get allowances for food and transport. In total, with overtime, they say they can boost their earnings to a maximum of $250 (£192) a month.
But this is still far below the £367 a month recommended for Cambodia by the Asia Floor Wage Alliance. Garment workers’ rights campaign group Labour Behind The Label said: ‘Workers have little choice than to work in these condi- tions. A living wage is a human right. This story represents the paradoxical nature of the industry where those at the top are exploiting those at the bottom.’
Mumsnet founder Justine Roberts added: ‘Eight out of ten Mumsnet users have said that they think football merchandise is a rip-off. An eight-yearold’s kit can cost over £ 90. If workers are being paid a pittance, it’s even more reprehensible.’
Last night, a Manchester United Supporters’ Trust spokesman said: ‘The shirts should be half the price of what they are now or even lower so that families can afford to buy them. The Cambodian workers should be paid a decent living wage.’
The Mail on Sunday talked to workers at the Adidas factory in Phnom Penh, which stands next to a polluted, dusty road strewn with litter.
One said: ‘The factory is hot and
‘Breaking their backs on United’s behalf’